


Harry Potter AU

by RandomRandomRandom



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Good Twin, Harry Potter Has a Sibling, Harry Potter Has a Twin, Protective Twin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:21:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26594374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomRandomRandom/pseuds/RandomRandomRandom
Summary: Harry Potter has a older protective twin.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Defeat of the Dark Lord

Lily and James Potter were ecstatic, it was nearing the end of July and they would soon be bringing home their precious son. Some might think that having a child in the middle of a war is foolish, but for most, it was a symbol of hope. It gave people something to fight for, and for the Potter's their son was even more important, for Albus Dumbledore leader of The Order of the Phoenix had heard a prophecy that could forever affect their child's life.

Lily had gone into labor at seven pm on July 30th. She had already been in labor for five hours when the healer finally told her it wouldn't be too much longer before she could start pushing. James was beside her holding her hand and his two best friends Sirius Black and Remus Lupin-Black (they had gotten married shortly after Lily and James) were pacing around the room like expectant fathers.

When Lily could breathe again she laughed. "You would think that you two are expecting a child instead of James and me."

Remus looked at the women on the bed who he considered to be his sister. "He may not be our son, but he is our god-son, and you're my sister. I can't help that I'm anxious."

James laughed. "And you Sirius?"

"What my amazing mate said." Sirius grinned.

Lily turned to door when it opened again. "Sev, I'm so glad you're here."

Severus Snape looked at the Marauders and ignoring James and Sirius walked to Lily's side. "Of course I'm here, you're my sister, and Remy practically my brother and," he paused looking at Remus, "I think he might be in worse condition then you." He laughed.

Though James and Sirius still didn't like Severus, they loved Lily and Remus and tolerated the man for him.

It was nearing eleven thirty when the doctor came back in and told Lily it was time to push. He ushered everyone but James out and soon Lily was struggling to bring her son into the world. At twelve thirty-one on July 31st, Evan Ignotus Potter was born. The healers were cleaning Lily up when her stomach began to ripple with another contraction. The healer was shocked, and needless to say so were the Potter's and when the healer ordered Lily to push, to everyone's surprise another son was born.

Severus, Sirius, and Remus were ushered back into Lily's room around one thirty and were quite shocked to see both James and Lily holding bundled blue blankets. "Is there something you forgot to tell us sister dear?" Severus asked.

James laughed, "No, more like our little Harry was playing hide and seek. This is Evan's twin brother Harry James." He said presenting the somewhat smaller bundle to Severus.

The boys looked exactly alike but for their hair and eyes, and of course their size, Harry was only about five pounds, while Evan was nearly eight. Evan had a more reddish tint to his few tufts of hair, while Harry seemed to have his father's dark raven locks. And while it looked like Harry was definitely going to inherit his mothers amazing emerald eyes, Evan's looked like they would likely take after his father's hazel ones.

Lily handed Evan to Sirius and Remus to see and turned to Severus. "Sev, James and I would like to ask you to be our little surprises god father since Evan has Sirius and Remus. Would you please?" She asked.

Severus looked at his honorary sister with suspiciously wet eyes. "I would be most honored."

A few weeks later the Potters went into hiding.

OooooO

It was October 31, 1981, when Lucius Malfoy made his way to Albus Dumbledore warning him that the Potter's secret keeper Peter Pettigrew had told Voldemort where to find the family. "Regulus and I were called in to hear of the plans, Reg went to find his brother and Remus, and I came here to warn you. We don't have much time he's going after the Potter's tonight.

Godric's Hollow

James Potter was blasted off his feet and hit the wall behind him. "You traitor," he shouted at Peter, "how could you, I trusted you with my family's life."

"Well I guess you shouldn't have then." Peter laughed and shot another curse at James causing him to smash into a decorative table and black out when his head hit the floor with a loud thud.

"Pity," Lord Voldemort said, "I thought he would be more of a challenge." Without any remorse, Lord Voldemort then pointed his wand at James and a deadly green light could be seen shooting out of it, rushing towards James. In an instant, James Potter was no more. Tom Riddle shook his head in mock pity, "Pettigrew return to the manor, I will take care of the woman and children."After Pettigrew bowed and left Voldemort then turned and swept up the stairs to find the nursery. He found Lily Potter standing in front of crib holding her wand in her hand. "Step aside you silly woman, and I won't kill you."

"No, no you can't have my babies." Lily shouted.

"Stupid woman, stand down." Voldemort yelled. When Lily defiantly started shooting hexes at him he blasted her to the side into the wall, where she was knocked out from the impact. Pointing his wand at Lily, he shouted, “avada kedavara”. 

Two identical faces looked to their mother who was motionless on the floor, then hazel and emerald eyes turned to look at Lord Voldemort accusingly.

Voldemort turned his wand to the two little Potter boys. "Such a pity, you would have been strong wizards, even as half-bloods. Avada Kedavra!" He shouted pointing his wand at the crib. He was startled when two strong shields blazed into existence in front of each boy; and even more surprised when they merged. Adult wizards could sometimes combine spells, but it was very difficult, and very dangerous, and these two little fifteen month old boys did it with no evident strain. Before he could contemplate this further, his killing curse hit the shield and another strange thing happened, their shield rebounded the curse and Voldemort was hit with his own killing curse.

A few minutes later, Dumbledore came rushing in with Remus and Severus. (Sirius was not present because upon seeing the destruction of the house, Sirius went to chase after Peter. Also, Sirius arrived at the house first so Dumbledore and Remus could not stop Sirius foolish actions.) Both Harry and Evan were unconscious but seemed to be otherwise fine. 

Dumbledore also found an unusual amount of dark magic in Evan’s and Harry’s scars and deduced that somehow, the boys survived the killing curse and temporarily defeated Lord Voldemort. Evan and Harry Potter were then declared the Twins Who Lived 

Word spread and soon the Wizarding World was raising their glasses in celebration to the saying thanks to Evan and Harry Potter, the Twins Who Lived.

Harry remained smaller than his brother by a few inches and several pounds, and because of his size (due to the fact that while in the womb Evan received more nutrients, thus making him healthier and of a good size) and somewhat more delicate health, Evan is often overprotective of Harry.


	2. Chapter 2: Wizards?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw, I have edited chapter 1 so do check out the changes.

Harry stirred the bacon, being sure to keep it from burning, all the while stealthily lifting a piece of toast from the top of a buttered stack and stuffing it into the pocket of his oversized sweatpants. A small tin of tomatoes and a chunk of cheese soon followed before the bacon was finished and he began serving his relatives. Dudley and Vernon always received the largest portions, while he and Aunt Petunia generally got the same amount, Harry because he was the "freak" and Petunia because she didn't want to ruin her slim figure.

As soon as he was finished, the ten-year-old boy rinsed his plates in the sink and took the empty plates and pans from the rest of the table and began to clean them. Only when he was finished could he safely escape the notice of his uncle and cousin as they watched the telly and Petunia as she perused the latest issue of Housewives.

Quickly and silently, Harry returned to his cupboard where his twin was waiting for him. Evan pounced as soon as the door was closed on their narrow hideaway. "What did you get?"

Harry quickly produced the fruits of his labors, breakfast for his brother who was being punished for daring to bring a book on magic home from the library to read. The book had, of course, been destroyed, which meant the pair now had to find some way to get the money to replace it. There was no way Vernon would ever give them the money to pay library fines when, "it was their own fault, anyway."

"It's not much, but Uncle Vernon was watching me like a hawk, so I didn't dare take anything else," Harry explained.

Evan patted him on the shoulder as he quietly pried open the tin of tomatoes, spreading them on his toast as he devoured the chunk of cheese in two bites. "S'all right. I reckon we've done worse."

Harry grinned and leaned back against the lone pillow in their dingy cell. The string from the single light bulb overhead tickled his nose and he batted it away every few moments as he studied the collection of elementary school drawings they had decorated their room with. Each one depicted the both of them in various situations, most of which involved them escaping the Dursleys. His favorite was a picture, well hidden in the corner nearest the door because of what it represented, of them riding a flying motorcycle across a beautiful nighttime sky. The unnaturalness of it would have seen it destroyed immediately, but it was his prize possession and he had protected it well when he brought it home from third grade.

"Hey, Ev?"

His brother grunted, laying the opposite direction on their narrow mattress.

"Our birthday is next week. Do you think anything good will happen?"

"What, like the Dursleys suddenly striking it rich and leaving us in this house to care for ourselves while they move to Majorca to live in a vacation home with Aunt Marge?" Evan asked.

Harry giggled. "That would be wicked."

His brother laughed. "Nothing could be better, I think. I just hope nothing can get worse."

"Yeah." Harry agreed.

They lay like that for another thirty minutes or so, until the distinct sound of the mail coming through the slot in the door could be heard. "Boy!" Vernon yelled, "Get the mail!"

The twins rolled their eyes. As far as their Uncle was concerned, there might as well be one of them. Together, they left the cupboard, hoping they wouldn't get punished again, considering one of them was supposed to be grounded. The mat beside the door held a postcard from their Aunt Marge, two white envelopes that looked like bills, and…

Two letters. A letter for each of them.

It was addressed in emerald green ink and said:

Mr Potter

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

On the back there was a strange coat of arms depicting an eagle, a lion, a snake, and a badger and large letter 'H'.

They exchanged glances. "Wicked."

"Boy!" Vernon yelled from the next room. "Where's my mail? Dudley, go find out what he's doing to the mail!"

They gasped, trying to hide the letter, but they kept shuffling it back and forth between them and in the few moments it took Dudley to smack his way into the foyer with his Smeltings stick, they had done no hiding of it at all.

Their cousin immediately noticed what they were doing and gasped in outrage. "DAD!" he yelled, "THEY'VE GOT A LETTER!"

Pounding footsteps came in from the living room and Harry desperately tried to hide the letter behind his back as his Uncle came within inches of them, his hot breath fogging their glasses with his proximity.

"Letter? Why would you get a letter?" Vernon whispered dangerously.

"Er… it was addressed to us," Henry said.

"Let me see it." Their Uncle held out his hand expectantly and Harry reluctantly handed over the strange parchment that had come for them.

By this time, Petunia had come in to see what the commotion was about and gasped at the sight of the letter. She came forward and the pair read the address on the letter and then flipped it over to see the seal.

"P-P-Petunia!" Dursley gasped.

"It's them!" she cried.

"Who's 'them,'" cried Harry and Evan in unison. "Yeah!" Dudley added lamely.

"GO TO YOUR CUPBOARD!" Vernon thundered, taking Petunia by the shoulders as they disappeared into the living room, shutting the door behind them. Dudley tried to follow, only to be yelled at, probably for the first time in his memory, "Dudley, leave, just leave!"

The three boys immediately had a rough but quiet tumble over who was going to listen at the keyhole, which the twins lost very quickly simply because of Dudley's Smeltings stick. Instead, they enjoyed the larger hole at the bottom of the door and began listening in time to hear:

"Petunia, we swore when we took them in that we would stamp out that nonsense! I won't have it, not under my roof!"

"But Vernon, look! They have the cupboard on here. What if they're watching?"

"Ha, ha! Even they can't keep watch on us all the time! You mark my words, I'll put a stop to this!"

The boys scuttled away from the door as Uncle Vernon reappeared, looking rather frazzled. He took the parchment in his hands and ripped it into tiny pieces before their eyes.

"Get your things together, boys. You're moving!"

Harry and Evan exchanged looks of horror. Leaving the Dursleys was the thing they had always hoped for, but this new mystery of the letter made them want to stick around a bit longer to find out who 'they' were and what it meant for them! There was also the fear that their Uncle would separate them through spite or by accident, and they absolutely couldn't let that happen!

But years of experience had taught them that arguing rarely worked with Vernon Dursley, so they disappeared into the cupboard and grabbed their meager possessions (Harry didn't dare to take the drawings, it would be best to try and return for them at a later date) before reconvening beside the front door.

Vernon surveyed them, looking pleased. "Right, follow me."

And to their surprise, he led them up the stairs and not out the door as they had been expecting. Dudley followed out of curiosity and the four of them arrived into Dudley's second bedroom. The room was called such because of the extraordinary quantity of presents that Dudley had broken or just never used over the years. As soon as he realized what was going on, though, their cousin broke into wails. "But this is my room, Daddy! I need it!"

"Silence, Dudley!" Vernon barked, yelling at his son for the second time ever. "There's nothing to be done about it!" He rounded on the twins. "You two. You will sleep here from now on. And no funny business! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Uncle Vernon," they answered obediently.

As soon as he was gone of course, they proceeded to demolish Dudley's carefully disorganized mess, keeping interesting tidbits here and there as they discussed the latest series of events.

"Har, I know I was just joking about the Dursleys leaving us to go live somewhere else, but I feel like that letter was something important. And it was addressed to us. Which means someone out there knows we exist and wants something to do with us." He shuffled through a section of the pile, filling a bin with some of the things that were beyond help and setting aside others, like a broken alarm clock that had probably met with a wall the first time Dudley had used it.

"I know. I just hope whatever they want, it's something good. At the very least, I suppose they can't separate us, or won't want to. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been addressed to both of us." Harry smiled over the mountain of toys at his brother. He had already found a somewhat reparable tin car in the pile. It was only missing a wheel, and he was sure there would be something else with wheels in the pile that might fit.

A wail from downstairs made them pause in their sorting for a few moments. Dudley was clearly throwing a tantrum over the loss of his room, most likely complete with fake tears and kicking and screaming on the floor. Their cousin hadn't thrown a real tantrum in years, but he was still rather good at pretending to have them. They were gleeful to hear Petunia taking him to task: "They are going to live in that room, and that is final. They were getting too big for the cupboard, anyway." This last was said a tad louder than necessary, almost as if it were intended for prying ears. Whoever 'they' were, the Dursleys weren't taking any chances.

"Do you suppose whoever it was will try again, Ev?"

"I hope so. If they don't, we'll have to find out more about that crest somehow. I'll check the library at school when we start up again in September."

Little did they know that further research would be unnecessary.

"Evan, get the mail!" Petunia snapped at them the next morning. Harry was cooking a late brunch as it was Saturday, which left a pair of idle hands. Idle hands was one thing Petunia could not abide from them.

He obliged, secretly hoping that there would be another letter. Their Aunt and Uncle had apparently put the incident behind them after the destruction of the letter the day before and the subsequent relocation of their wards. So it was that Evan found the six letters sitting on the mat that morning. Quickly, he picked two up and stuffed them into his pants, carrying the other two and a bill back into the kitchen.

"There's four more, Harry!" he cried, silently begging his twin to forgive him for the mild fib.

Vernon made an inarticulate roar and snatched the mail from his hands before the twins could rip open the letters. The two thick pieces of parchment were tossed into the small kitchen fireplace that Petunia used to bake crusty bread. A quick light of a match and the flames curled around the green ink. Harry and Evan watched on sadly as their hopes were burned up.

"Go to your cupboard… gah, room!" Dursley cried at them.

Evan hurried to oblige, dragging his brother from the room and up the stairs before he could protest.

"Ev, what?"

"Shh, Har. Look!" He pulled two letters - one for each of them - from the waistband of his pants, licking his lips as he held it out to the other boy. "You open it!"

Nodding, Harry slid his finger along the flap, ripping the thick paper quickly, just in case Vernon was going to come and give them a talking to. Shoulder to shoulder, the pair started to read:

Hogwarts School

of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

"What does it mean, they await our owl?" Harry decided to ask first.

Evan shook his head, reading the letter a second time. "Harry, do you think this is real? Do you think we've really been invited to learn magic someplace?"

Feeling the heavy parchment between his fingers, reading the light scratch of the green ink on the paper, all he could do was nod. "Stranger things have happened to us, remember?"

His brother nodded, too. A lifetime of torment with the Dursleys had led to several unexplained things happening to the both of them. There was the time they were being chased by Dudley and his gang and they jumped behind the bin near the school cafeteria, and the next moment found themselves on the roof. Or more recently, when they had spoken to a snake at the zoo on Dudley's birthday. Vernon always punished them by making them go hungry and stay in their cupboard when these things happened.

"But what if those things are magic?" Harry whispered, afraid to believe it was true.

"Well, if they are, then we have a problem. Whatever the owl thing means, they're expecting us to acknowledge attendance before the end of the month! Not to mention, we have no idea how to get these supplies." Evan was looking at the second piece of paper, which looked to detail the books and other things they would need. "Books, uniforms, wands, cauldrons?" He scoffed at the list in disgust.

"We haven't any money, either," Harry reminded him reluctantly.

"We need help," his twin acknowledged grudgingly. "It's clear our relatives won't help. Think, Harry. Is there anyone we know who's just a little bit strange, a little bit magical?"

Harry pondered for a moment and named the only person he could think of, "Mrs. Figg?"

Evan looked at him with amazement for a moment before kissing his brother on the forehead. "You're brill, Har! Come on, let's see if we can sneak out and go see her."

"Go see her?" Harry asked, aghast. "But she'll feed us stale cake and make us look at pictures of her cats and…"

"It's a small price to pay if she's actually a witch," Evan pointed out.

Pausing, Harry nodded a little to himself and followed his brother downstairs where they exploded out the front door to Uncle Vernon's yelling, "Get back here!" A few lawns over and they were ready to knock on Mrs. Figg's front door.

"Ready?" Evan asked, his hand poised.

Harry nodded and watched as his brother knocked. They waited in silence, their breaths held as they listened to see if she was coming.


	3. Chapter 3: Mrs Figg

It was only a few moments before they heard the sound of footsteps coming from inside. The old-fashioned wooden door cracked open and a rheumy blue eye peeked out at them, before the crack suddenly widened and Arabella Figg looked down at them in confusion.

"Evan? Harry? Boys, what are you doing here? Did the Dursleys decide to leave you with me again?" She peered out at the street as though she might see Vernon's shiny blue company car speeding away from the curb.

"Mrs. Figg," Evan blurted, "Are you a witch?"

"What are you doing!?" Harry hissed at him in alarm.

"Relax, if she is, then we'll have help, and if not, she'll write it off as us just being kids." Evan whispered softly in his ear.

Meanwhile, Arabella had drawn in her breath at the shock of these boys asking her such a question. "Don't be silly, boys," she laughed fakely, "come in, come in!"

Resigned to their fate, since it seemed she wasn't a witch as they hoped, the twins followed her inside. But as soon as Mrs. Figg had closed the door behind them, she bent down and asked in a harsh whisper, "Did you get your letter, then?"

Hope rekindled in their eyes. Evan asked, "It's real, then? Magic, and Hogwarts, and we… we can do magic?"

Smiling warmly, Mrs. Figg motioned them to sit on her old overstuffed paisley couch and busied herself with getting two more cups for the tea she already had waiting on the table across from them as she explained, "Real, yes! Though I've never been to Hogwarts myself, since I'm a squib. My whole family before me went there."

"What's a squib?" Harry asked.

Arabella turned with their favorite cups in her hands—white with blue Chinese dragons painted across them—and sat in her chair by the table as she poured the tea. "Well, there are three types of people in the world. There are muggles, like your relatives, non-magic folk. There are wizards and witches, like you. And then there are people who ought to be magical, like me. My whole family is magic, you see, but when I was about your age and I didn't show any signs and didn't receive my Hogwarts letter, I was labeled a squib. We aren't very well liked by the wizarding world. Some people consider the purity of a wizards blood to be the most important thing about them."

The twins listened with rapt attention, a million questions buzzing at the tips of their tongues. But Mrs. Figg went on:

"If you've gotten your letter, then you'll need to go to Diagon Alley in London to get your supplies. I think we all know that the Dursleys won't take you to London without a good excuse, and with the way they feel about magic…" she mumbled disgruntedly to herself for a moment as she handed the boys their tea, "Well, you'll have to tell them before you leave, of course. You dears sit tight for a moment while I floo Albus to see if we can't get a guide to show you the way and to explain things to your family."

She set down her own cup and moved into the adjacent room where they saw her reach into a pot on the mantel and throw a handful of something into the fire. A second later the flames had turned into a cheerful crackle of emerald green and Mrs. Figg called out, "Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" Quietly, Harry and Evan crept into the room to watch this first example of magic. Just as they had taken position peering around Mrs. Figg, a man with a long white beard appeared in the fireplace. At least, his head appeared. He seemed to be having some trouble with his beard getting caught up in the swirling flames and wrapping about his head. When he had gotten himself sorted out, they saw an elderly man with twinkling eyes and a pair of half moon glasses perched precariously on his rather crooked nose.

"Oh, Albus! For Merlin's sake!" Arabella laughed. "I have some news about the Potters."

"The boys?" Albus asked, suddenly all business. His eyes searched the bits of the room he could see from the grate and spied two pairs of knobbly knees trying to hide behind Arabella's skirts. Looking up, he couldn't help the extra bright twinkle that crept into his eyes as he saw the Potter twins again for the first time since he had left them on Privet Drive. "My boys!" he cried, "How have you been the past ten years? Are Vernon and Petunia treating you well?"

"Er…" Harry exchanged a glance with his brother. "Sorry sir, but… uh… no."

"No?" Dumbledore frowned, craning his neck to look up at Mrs. Figg. "Stand back, Arabella, I'm coming through!"

She hastily backed away from the grate, ushering the twins with her. A moment later, the emerald green flames gushed upwards and Dumbledore appeared, all of him this time, brushing soot from canary yellow robes decorated with absurd little pictures of multi-colored rubber ducks. "Now then," he said, "what's this about the Dursleys?"

Harry nibbled his lower lip and took a step behind his brother. Evan was much better at dealing with things like this.

Determined that someone, at last, would see the situation and correct it, Evan laid out all the facts for this man who, according to their letter, was the Headmaster of Hogwarts. "Well, sir. Until the first letter arrived, we shared the cupboard under the stairs as our bedroom. Whenever we so much as mentioned magic or anything unnatural, we were locked in there without food until Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia decided they needed us for some chore. We were forced to cook, clean, mend, garden, and anything else they could think up while Dudley never lifted a finger except to punch us or chase us with his little gang of friends. We couldn't turn in our best work at school without being smarter than him, which he would whinge about until we were punished for cheating (again without food) and every other time we've tried to tell an adult this, absolutely nothing has been done to change it." Evan took a deep breath, hoping that the stricken look on the Headmaster's face meant that he was doing well. "So, sir, no, we have not been all that well since we started living on Privet Drive. Nothing's gone well since our parents died in the car accident and we lived on without them."

Harry's arms snaked around his middle, holding him tight. Despite his bravado, it was terribly hard for Evan to admit that all of these things had been done to them when their past attempts to confess had always failed. But magic had given them hope. Perhaps this Dumbledore would be different.

"Car accident?" Dumbledore whispered. "Oh, boys, it appears that things have not gone as I had hoped at all. Not at all." Sighing, he motioned everyone back into the living room and the cooling tea and took the remaining chair opposite Arabella. "Your parents did not die in a car accident. They were killed by the most powerful dark wizard our world has ever known. His name was Lord Voldemort. On the night of your parent's deaths, Voldemort gained the information he needed to find them. And he came, and he killed them. But when he tried to kill you, the curse rebounded, leaving behind only those marks on your cheeks."

The twins touched the identical lightning marks on their faces. "They told us these were just birthmarks." Harry whispered.

Dumbledore closed his eyes in pain. "I thought it was best to leave you with the Dursleys, my boys. It was your mother's wish, should your other guardians be unable to take you, that you go to her sister. But I can see now that I should have looked elsewhere. Can you ever forgive me?"

Evan shrugged and Harry just looked at him with wide, sad eyes.

Sighing, the Headmaster attempted to shake off the melancholy that had settled on the room. "I will have to see what can be done about it. But for now, will you be all right spending the rest of the summer living with the Dursleys? Only until you leave for Hogwarts on the first of September."

They nodded, reminded once more of the magical school that they would be going to in a little over a month.

"Which is what I was flooing you about in the first place, Albus." Mrs. Figg handed him a cup of tea and settled once more in her chair. "Vernon and Petunia are much too much against anything magical to take the boys to Diagon. I was hoping to enlist your help in finding a guide to take them and to help explain things to the Dursleys."

Dumbledore nodded. "I'll explain things to them myself," he said dangerously, the twinkle in his eyes changed to a hard glint. "And I'll ask the professors if anyone is willing to escort the twins to do their shopping." He smiled over his spectacles at the boys, who gave weak grins in return.

"Sir," Evan asked, "Does this mean we won't have to come back here again, once you find us a new guardian?"

"Yes, my boy. I promise."

"And we won't be separated?" Harry asked softly, tightening the hold he had on his brother's hand.  
"No, of course not!" Mrs. Figg exclaimed. "Separate the Potters! The mere thought…"

"There is much that you do not yet know." Dumbledore told them softly. "In our world, you are famous for more than just surviving the Dark Lord Voldemort. You see, the curse he used on you is one for which we have no counter. Yet it did not affect either of you. In the wizarding world, you are known as the boys who lived."

"But what happened to Voldemort?" Harry asked.

"Good question, my boy!" Dumbledore crowed. "Many people believe that he died that night. But I think that he is out there somewhere, waiting to make his move so that he can return and finish where he left off. You would do well to be cautious when things seem to be strange to you."

Harry nodded seriously, while Evan frowned. "But sir, surely if he were still out there someone would have seen or heard from him after all this time?"

"Ah, but if he lives, what sort of man do you think he might be to have survived the Killing Curse? He disappeared the night you survived, it is true, but what sort of vapor or mist could be left? What piece? I believe that Voldemort used very dark magic to ensure his survival. Very dark magic indeed. But, I believe I have given you too much to think about as it is. I'm just going to pop over to the Dursleys for a bit and give them a good talking to. I'll see that someone is along to collect you both in a few days to get your school things. And I'll also make sure that your Uncle will take you to the station on the first to catch the train. Toodleoo!" And with that, the Headmaster swept outside, his canary yellow robes even brighter in the sunlight outside.

"That was… abrupt," Evan muttered.

But the Headmaster's departure meant that they were now at the mercy of Mrs. Figg, who proceeded to parade her albums of cat pictures past them. It was dark by the time they made their escape, though at least the squib had fed them something resembling a dinner, which was more than the Dursleys were likely to give them upon arriving home.

"Do you think Dumbledore really talked to them?" Harry asked.

"I hope so. And I hope he did something to them, to make them nicer to us while we're still here," Evan replied bitterly.

They hesitantly came through the familiar door of number four. Vernon and Dudley were, as usual, sitting in front of the telly. Petunia was nowhere to be seen. Deciding to test their luck, they went into the kitchen and pulled two glasses out of the cupboards to get some water from the tap.

"Harry, Evan!" Petunia was now standing in the kitchen doorway. "I didn't hear you come in. Just water? Would you like some juice?" She bustled over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice, then took their glasses and dumped out the water and filled them to the brim with the juice.

Evan looked at the glass in his hand suspiciously. Neither boy had ever been allowed to have juice in the Dursley house. It was something special that, if they were lucky, they sometimes got at school on activity days. Something strange was clearly going on here.

"Are you hungry? We've already eaten dinner, but I put some plates for you in the fridge, so if your little tummies get rumbly, don't be afraid to pop down and have a snack." Harry spotted the promised plates in the fridge as she put the juice away, and gasped. They were piled high with chicken, rice, and vegetables. Portions that were usually reserved for Dudley and Vernon.

He and Evan looked at one another in wonder. What had Dumbledore done to their relatives?

"When you finish watching the telly, try to get to bed early. I want to leave bright and early tomorrow to get you both some proper clothes!" With that, Petunia flounced into the living room and joined her husband and son on the long couch, which the twins had never been allowed to sit on. She turned to look at them and patted the empty corner beside her in invitation.

"What do you reckon?" Evan asked softly.

"I reckon he's brill, Ev. It may be too good to be true, but why not take advantage while we still can?"

Nodding, they joined the rest of the family on the couch, sipping their juice and viewing some of Dudley's favorite programs. Their Uncle tried to ask what they would like to watch, but having never seen anything before, they just let their cousin pick. Dudley, for his part, seemed more than happy to educate his cousins on the finer points of television.

When Petunia ushered them upstairs to bed, they went without any argument, happy for the first time in a long time.

Dumbledore seemed to be as good as his word. For the past week, Harry and Evan had been treated to real, properly fitted clothes, foods and meal portions they had only dreamed about before, and the surprisingly good company of their cousin, now that he wasn't trying to beat them up. July the thirty-first arrived and with it came several surprises.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" greeted them as they entered the kitchen that morning. A mound of presents was covering the table, breakfast was already cooked, but waiting on the stove for them to open the presents and then eat. Petunia was beaming at them, Vernon had his arms crossed over his chest proudly, and Dudley was holding out an oddly shaped package to both of them, clearly wanting them to open that one first.

Grinning, they ripped into the paper, finding a brand new Playstation 2, which they had learned about from Dudley earlier in the week. Excited now, they opened the rest of the parcels on the table and received a TV, three controllers for the game system so they could play with Dudley if they wanted, an assortment of ten new games, some books that Evan had shown interest in, and for Harry a brand-new football which he gushed over after having seeing his first football game on the telly the day before.

"There's one more present!" Petunia announced when they were finished. She looked over their shoulders towards the door and turning, they saw Uncle Vernon holding a large box as big as he was that depicted a pair of bunk beds.

"Wicked!" the twins exclaimed.

Their Uncle hefted the box up the stairs and they impatiently gobbled down their breakfast as they listened to the sounds of clanking metal, hammering, and Vernon's curses from upstairs.

Just as they finished and were about to run back to their room to see the construction efforts, the doorbell rang.

"Oh, boys, could you get that?" Petunia called from the kitchen, busy with the dishes.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia!" Harry and Evan answered reluctantly. They raced to the door and opened it to see who was on the other side. But in the place of the expected mail or milkman was a sneering gentleman with lank black hair, wearing a long-sleeved dark collared shirt with far too many buttons and skinny black trousers that buttoned from knee to ankle over his heeled boots.

"I am here to escort Mr. Evan and Harry Potter to Diagon Alley to retrieve their school supplies," the man announced sharply, glaring down his large hooked nose at them.

Evan smirked, thrusting his hand forward for the man to shake. "I'm Evan. This is my little brother, Harry."

"Hey! I'm only younger by… well, not that long. We're twins, silly!" Harry stuttered a bit, as he wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed between Evan's birth and his own.

The man grimaced at the offered hand, but shook it anyway. "And I am Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts. You will address me as Professor, or sir."

Harry shook his hand as well and they offered to let the Professor come inside. "Sorry, sir, Professor Dumbledore only told us he would send someone in a few days, not when exactly. We weren't expecting you."

"Indeed," Snape sneered.

They led the dour man into the living room and bade him to sit while they went to fetch their Aunt. "It's our birthday, you see," Harry explained, "and we're not sure if she'll mind us leaving or not."

But when they asked Petunia, up to her elbows in soapy water in the sink, she told them that today was when Dumbledore had scheduled for them to visit Diagon, and hadn't they mentioned it?

Returning to the living room, they found Snape staring at the ceiling in consternation as the hammering and cursing continued from upstairs.

"What is that racket?" he asked.

"Oh, Uncle Vernon got us bunk beds for our birthday!" Evan said, smiling happily. "We've been sharing the single bed up there till now, so I guess they realized we've gotten too big for that."

Snape frowned at them momentarily, but was prevented from speaking when Harry said, "And Aunt Petunia says that Professor Dumbledore wanted you to come today, so we can go now if you like." They were quite excited about seeing the wizarding world at last.

"Very well. If you would lead me to Mrs. Figg's house. We'll be taking the Floo Network to Diagon Alley." Snape stood fluidly and stalked quickly to the front door, the twins scuttling along behind him.

They chattered back and forth across all three yards and on the front stoop of number ten, where Arabella lived. The squib answered the door and greeted the Potions Master, "Severus! How good to see you!"

He grunted in response and turned down all offers to visit for tea, saying that he had business for the Headmaster to see to. "Just came to borrow your Floo, Mrs. Figg," he said at least twice.

"Now then. I know you haven't experienced any magical forms of travel before, so listen carefully. Take a handful of Floo powder, throw it in the flames, step in and announce your destination as clearly as possible. Watch for the right grating and step out when you've got the right one. I'll take you both one at a time since this is your first time. Come along, Mr. Potter."

Both boys stepped forward at the same time, and Snape gripped the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Three sets of twins this year," he muttered under his breath. "Evan, you come first." The named boy came forward and followed Snape's instructions and the pair stepped together into the fireplace, with the Professor's hands gripping his arms tightly. "Keep your elbows in, now."

They disappeared in a whoosh of green and Harry watched in fascination as Snape reappeared a few minutes later. "You now, Harry. Come along. Thank you, Mrs. Figg."

Harry joined him in the fireplace and winced slightly as Snape's long and bony fingers dug into his arms. "Diagon Alley!" he cried as clearly as he could. The grate whooshed away and dozens of others followed it.

"The one we want is the Leaky Cauldron. A pub of sorts, but rather old-fashioned looking," Snape murmured in his ear.

Harry thought all of the places flashing by looked old-fashioned, but then one zoomed up that held his own image smiling back at him and he rushed forward, landing on the floor with a 'thump' at Evan's feet and choking on ash. Snape calmly stepped out after him, sneering down at him on the floor and waving his wand over them both while saying, "Scourgify." He found himself suddenly cleaned of fireplace debris.

"Welcome," Snape sneered sarcastically, "to the Leaky Cauldron."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how was it?


	4. Chapter 4: Diagon Alley

Snape escorted them to Gringott's, the wizards bank. Inside, the twins were awed by the goblins balancing gold and gems on their scales from behind the high counters. The Professor presented a small gold key to one of them and within moments they were rolling through the twisting underground passageways to reach the Potter vault. The goblin, whose name was Griphook, opened the door to reveal a huge mound of gold, silver, and bronze coins. Both boys filled a small bag with a little of each as Snape explained the particulars of wizard gold.

"The gold ones are galleons, silver sickles, and bronze knuts. Seventeen sickles to the galleon, twenty-nine knuts to a sickle. You'll be wanting more galleons for this trip, since you're getting all of your first-year supplies."

When they were finished, they traveled the mine tracks back to the surface where a great giant of a man was waiting for a goblin to return to take him to his vault. To their surprise, Snape stopped to greet him before they continued:

"Hagrid. What brings you here?" Severus asked, surprised clearly evident in his eyes. 

"Business for Professor Dumbledore." Hagrid beamed proudly. "Sent me to retrieve the you-know-what in vault 713."

"Did he?" Snape murmured.

"Excuse me, Hagrid, sir. Do you know the Headmaster?" Harry asked curiously.

"Know 'im?" Hagrid boomed, "Why, 'e's the greatest 'Eadmaster 'Ogwarts 'as ever 'ad! Trusted me with an important mission, 'e did." The giant man peered down at them a moment later, realizing that he didn't know who had been asking. His eyes widened a second later, "Blimey! The Potter twins. Why, I 'aven't seen you two since you were nigh on 'bout a year old, the both of ya." And before either Harry or Evan could react, they had been pulled into a musty, furry hug by the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.

"Hagrid, put them down. We need to be getting on with their shopping, and I don't have all day," Snape interrupted.

"Oh, o' course, Professor. Sorry, kids, just couldn' help meself, it's been so long since I seen ya. Take care!" Griphook led the man into the mineshaft and Snape motioned impatiently for them to get going the opposite direction.

"We'll do uniforms first, then books, then all of the other supplies you'll need. Follow me." He moved off at a fast clip through the crowd of wizards and witches. Harry and Evan were hard-pressed to keep up. At last they stopped outside of a shop called Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Go on in, I'm sure Madame Malkin will know what you need. I have a… request," here the Professor sneered, "that Professor Dumbledore asked me to take care of. I'll be right back."

Left alone at last, the twins made their way into the shop where a middle-aged witch, who was looking quite frazzled, immediately pounced on them. "Hogwarts, dears? Step on up!" She motioned them onto two black stepstools and motioned her wand at two measuring tapes, which immediately began to whip around them in a frenzied state.

A third boy was being fitted with his own robes on a stool beside them. "You're for Hogwarts as well?" he asked.

"Yes," The twins replied simultaneously.

"My parents are next door picking up my books. As soon as I'm done here I'm going to drag them off to look at the newest broom, the Nimbus Two Thousand. Do you play quidditch? It's a shame that first-years aren't allowed on the teams."

"Er…" Harry mumbled, unsure what to say.

"What's quidditch?" Evan asked.

"What's quidditch!?" the boy asked incredulously. "Don't tell me you're muggleborns?" His nose wrinkled distastefully at the thought of consorting with them if that were the case.

"No," Harry said quickly, "Both our parents were magical, but we were raised by muggles. They didn't see fit to tell us about any of this until our Hogwarts letter came."

"So that's the way of it. My name is Draco Malfoy, I'm a pureblood." The boy, now finished with his fitting, held out his hand for both of them to shake. Evan did so readily enough, but Harry only stared at the offensive hand for several moments until his brother nudged him sharply in the ribs. He grudgingly took the hand. Draco looked at the front of the shop as they heard the bell jingling. "There are my parents now. Oh, and…"

Professor Snape had entered the shop with the Malfoys. Draco's parents were quite similar in coloring, both blond and regal in appearance. Draco clearly took more after his mother, however.

"Professor Snape." The twins greeted their guide respectfully. "Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy."

"That's you done, dears." Madame Malkin told them. They quickly hopped down from the stools to join the adults.

"Lucius." Snape inclined his head slightly to the Malfoy partriarch.

"Severus. Running errands for the Headmaster again?" Lucius glanced down at the twins with a raised eyebrow. "The Potters? But of course."

Strangely, Snape shifted his weight slightly to move subtly in front of Harry and Evan. "Just collecting their school supplies. Their guardians were…unable to come."

Draco, meanwhile, was looking at them with wide eyes now that he knew who they were. But with his father so close, he didn't dare say anything to them or ask how the boys who lived had been raised by muggles.

Severus finished saying something to Lucius and beckoned the twins to follow him. "Come along, the bookstore is next door."

He followed them both closely, and prevented Evan from running off and exploring the stacks of books by himself. "Stay together!" he snarled when they tried to protest, "I can't keep an eye on both of you if you go off by yourselves."

Sensing that the professor was worried about something, they obeyed him after that. Evan, of course, still ogled more books than Harry would ever have even a passing interest in. When the Professor tried to stop him from buying extras, "Stick to the first-year texts, Mr. Potter," Evan just turned and leveled his best glare at the man until he backed off, then purposefully dropped the three volumes in his hands into their shopping basket.

"Ev, come on!" Harry whined after his brother spent ten minutes gleefully perusing the section on curses and their counters.

"All right, all right," Evan agreed, "But the next time we come by ourselves, I'm going to stay as long as I like."

"Fine. Can we just go, already? Remember, the Professor doesn't have all day."

Evan snuck a guilty glance at the Professor, only to catch the fleeting edge of what he could swear had been a smile and a muttered comment about "Lily". Putting two and two together, he casually asked as they were checking out, "Did you know our mother, Professor?"

Snape frowned caustically at him, before giving in with a resigned sigh. "Yes. We were good friends as children. I used to live right next to Lily and Petunia. Of course, all that changed when James Potter came into the picture." The man snapped his jaws shut after that, refusing to say anymore.

When they had gotten their wrapped parcels tied together and were leaving, Snape spoke once more, "I did not have a chance to finish my task before I spotted Lucius and Narcissa making their way to the robe shop. It was Dumbledore's wish that the professors could buy you a birthday present, and he suggested that we get your pet animals. Since I was interrupted, I see no reason why you can't pick them yourselves."

Both boys' eyes' lit up with joy. They had never had a pet before, and now it seemed they would each be getting one. Moments later, Snape led them in the Magical Menagerie.

"Do keep in mind, Messirs Potter, that students may only have an owl OR a cat OR a toad. Though there have been exceptions." Snape said, remaining near the door of the shop while they made their selections.

Harry quickly made his way to the owls. Mrs. Figg had explained a bit more about the wizarding form of mail to them, and he wanted to be able to keep in touch with his friends during the summers. At least, he hoped he would make friends.

A snowy white owl caught his eye. She hooted gently at him and, grinning, Harry took her cage down and returned to the front of the store.

Evan, on the other hand, had been intrigued by snakes ever since their adventure in the zoo earlier that summer. Although he had heard Snape's warning about the allowed pets, he just couldn't help looking anyway. Besides, he and his brother wouldn't need more than one owl and he knew that was what Harry intended to get.

That was how he found a Quetzalcoatl winged snake curled up in its terrarium in the dark back corner of the store. Gently touching the glass enclosure, he watched as a vibrant blue eye peered open and the opalescent white scales uncoiled, revealing a line of steel gray feathers along the snake's spine. The wings were located just behind the head joint, covered in the same soft gray feathers.

"Hello," Evan whispered, unconsciously using Parseltongue.

The snake's eyes widened a bit at being confronted with a Speaker. "Hello, Ssspeaker," he answered. "Have you come to free me?"

"I would like to," Evan answered sadly, "But we aren't really allowed to have sssnakes at ssschool."

"What petsss are you allowed, Ssspeaker?"

"Owls, cats, and toads," the boy answered distastefully.

The snake laughed a sibilant hiss of syllables. "Then free me. I will come with you as a cat." With that, the snake's scales began to shift, changing to a soft white fur with spots of gray along his back. The pale blue eyes kept their slitted appearance but grew wider, framed by whiskers and a small heart-shaped nose. "Meow!" the cat ordered him insistently.

Realizing that the cat was now too large for the terrarium, Evan hurried to remove the cover, gently picking up the cat in his arms. "How did you do that?" he asked.

"I am a Quetzalcoatl, young Ssspeaker. Named after the god of the Aztecsss. I have many abilities that I do not know how to explain."

"All right. I'll sssee if I can find the time to research snakes at ssschool, then." Evan smiled, scratching the cat under his chin and feeling the rumbling purr in response. "Do you have a name?"

"Ssserasssh," the snake hissed, still enjoying the scratching sensation.

"Serash," Evan said in English. "Come along then, and I'll free you." He returned to the front of the store.

"Finished?" Snape asked. Both boys had returned now. He noted their choices, a snowy owl and a gray cat. Satisfied, he asked the shop owner how much.

"Fer the owl, ten galleons. The cat…" the owner stopped, looking at the cat in Evan's arms with confusion.

"What is it?" Snape asked impatiently.

The owner startled. "Er… nothing, sir. Just didn't realize I had any gray cats left. The cat'll be another five."

Snape handed over the money and asked for a carrier for the cat as well. When the transaction was completed, he led the boys back into the street to continue their shopping.

"All that's left are your potions things, two trunks, and your wands."

They followed the Professor into the Apothecary next, where he ordered two sets of ingredients for first-year students. "I teach Potions," he informed them, "You will not, under any circumstances, buy extra ingredients that are not included in your yearly set." They also picked up their scales, cauldrons, and crystal phials to store their potions in the Apothecary as well. "Telescopes and trunks." Snape said, leading them to their last stop, Sterling's Sundries. Each of them selected a single black steamer trunk edged in silver and piled all of their purchases inside. The Professor shrunk these and pocketed them.

"Now, there's only one place to get wands. Ollivander's."

They entered the dusty shop to find it empty except for a counter and a single rickety chair which Snape immediately sat in and crossed his legs. The twins walked forward hesitantly, eyeing the tall shelves full of thin little boxes in a variety of colors.

"Messirs Potter," a voice said softly out of nowhere. They turned to see an old man with pale, wide eyes shining like moons from his wrinkled face. He studied them with an odd smile on his face, "Yes, I thought you would be in soon. You have your mother's eyes, just as they say." He moved closer, studying the scars on Harry and Evan respectively. A finger moved forward to hover over the younger twin's face. "And that's where… I'm sorry to say that I sold the wand that did it. Yew, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Very powerful."

The twins exchanged a brief glance at that, but Ollivander continued.

"Well now, Messirs Potter. Which are your wand arms?"

Harry immediately held out his right, but Evan seemed unsure. "Er… I write with my right, but it seems strange somehow to hold a wand like a pencil."

"Ah! You are one of those, I see." Evan frowned in response. "Very well, let us begin the testing." The old man began to pull down boxes, removing the dusty covers so that each boy in turn could take the wand inside. The first one that Harry tried shot out sparks that exploded a vase behind the counter. Evan caused the only lantern in the shop to shoot upwards and slam itself into the wall.

It took a half dozen more tries before Ollivander tapped his lips, saying, "I wonder…" he disappeared into the back of the shelves and returned with an especially dusty box. Pulling open the lid, he announced, "Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches."

Both twins reached for it at the same time, Evan's left hand and Harry's right landing on it at the same moment. A swirling rush of magic surged through the room and multicolored sparks shot around them. They both felt the oddest surge of power that quickly dissipated as they reflexively dropped the wand back into the box.

"How odd," Ollivander mumbled. He motioned for Evan to take it. The boy obliged, but nothing happened. Harry picked it up as well with the same result. Exchanging a glance, they both picked it up at the same time again, and experienced the same swirl of magic as before. The shop owner removed it from their hands after a few seconds, replacing it in the box and wrapping it in brown paper with a wave of his hand. "Very odd, indeed. It so happens that the phoenix who gave the feather in that wand gave one other. Just one. And that wand, why it gave you those scars."

Harry looked at the wrapped box sadly, while Evan tried to appear stoic.

"But, that doesn't help us with the problem of your wands. I feel it would be best if you took that one, since you had such a strange reaction to it. I've never seen a wand react to two wizards touching it, but neither one by themselves. But your own wands must be here somewhere. Let's keep looking, shall we?"

Twenty minutes later, the selections had been made. For Harry, there was a twelve inch mahogany wand with a dragon's heartstring. Evan's was ebony, a slim and slender ten inches with a unicorn tail hair inside.

"Twenty-one galleons." Ollivander announced happily, receiving payment from Snape, who was holding their moneybags.

"All right, then," the Professor looked down his nose at them again. "I shall return you to your relatives now. They will deliver you to the station on September the first. Do you know how to reach the platform?"

The boys shook their heads in confusion.

Sighing, Snape handed them their tickets. "Platform nine and three-quarters is between platforms nine and ten. All you have to do is walk through the barrier between them. Look about for other wizarding folk if you have trouble." By this time they had reached the Leaky Cauldron once more. The Professor motioned them towards the fireplace. "Just ask for Mrs. Figg's."

One behind the other, the twins used the floo powder and returned to Privet Drive.


	5. Chapter 5: Hogwarts Express

Chapter Five: The Hogwarts Express

The Dursleys dropped them off at Kings Cross Station early on the morning of the first. Petunia fussed over the twins, smoothing Harry's hair and smartening the lines of Evan's light jacket. Dudley, for his part, actually looked sad to see them go, though he tried to hide the light quivering of his lip by frowning severely at them.

After bidding farewell to their relatives, whom they fully expected to never have to see again, the boys made their way into the station with their tickets clutched in their hands to find platforms nine and ten. Snape had told them to walk through the barrier between these, but upon arriving there they found that there was more than one red brick barrier separating one side of the platform from the other.

"It figures," Evan muttered with disgust.

They wandered closer to the first of three barriers and Harry kept watch while Evan casually leaned against it to see if an invisible entrance might be hidden there. After a moment, he grabbed Harry and shook his head and they moved to the middle one. As they approached the wall, a crowd of red-headed children being ushered by a middle-aged woman swarmed in from the other side.

"Packed with Muggles, of course!" she said under her breath.

The twins, realizing that this was a wizarding family on their way to the platform they were looking for, followed along in their wake as they approached the opposite side of the barrier they had already tried. Evan hit himself in the forehead as he realized the mistake they had made in not checking to make sure either side of the barrier wasn't the entrance.

"All right, all right. You first, Percy." The eldest of the red-headed boys took his trolley and rushed towards the wall, disappearing just as he should have hit it. The mother ushered a pair of twins through next and then there was just a boy about the same age as Harry and Evan, and a girl a bit younger who remained by her mother's side without any luggage.

"We'd best ask, don't you think?" Harry whispered.

Nodding, Evan stepped forward and tugged on the sleeve of the woman's dress. "Excuse me, could you tell us how to get onto the platform?"

"Oh! Dears, I didn't see you there!" The woman put her hand against her heart as though she had received a great shock. "Is this your first time at Hogwarts? Ron is new this year too." She gestured towards the remaining boy who looked at them with a shy smile.

"Yes, m'am," they answered in unison.

"Not to worry about the platform. Just walk straight at the barrier between nine and ten. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on before Ron, both of you." She shooed them towards the solid presence of the brick wall.

Taking a deep breath, Harry charged bravely forward with his trolley, Evan right on his heels. The wall came closer and closer and he squeezed his eyes shut just before he hit it, only to peek them open again on the other side. A wonderful view met him as he caught sight of the scarlet red engine of the Hogwarts Express. Dozens of cars followed behind the main engine, stretching to the other end of the platform in a long line of emerald green pierced by gold-framed windows. A crowd of students and parents seeing them off swamped the edge of the platform.

Behind them the other boy their age careened through the archway with his own trolley, stopping to gawk at the train himself. His mother followed a moment later with his little sister, immediately trying to straighten 'Ronald's' clothing and wipe a smudge of dirt off of his nose.

"Let's, er… find a compartment, then." Evan mumbled, uncomfortable since he and Harry were the only ones without parents to see them off.

They passed an awkward boy who had the slightly pudgy look of baby fat still on his face, telling an older woman who was most likely his grandmother that he seemed to have misplaced someone named 'Trevor'.

"Oh, Neville," she answered, with the long-suffering tones of someone who has been on the edge of patience for untold years.

The twins entered the very first car after the engine and began making their way down the train, peering into compartment after compartment to find an empty one. They looked into one, seeing the boy from Madame Malkin's, Draco Malfoy, sitting with several tough-looking boys and a simpering blond girl who sneered at them as though they were pressing their noses against the glass and making ghastly faces at her. At last, almost at the end of the train, they found one empty compartment and promptly shoved their belongings inside to rest in the corners, placing the cages containing Serash and the owl Harry had named Hedwig onto the rack overhead.

They had just settled down into their seats opposite one another when the door opened to admit Ron, who looked at them sheepishly before asking, "Do you, er, mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full."

They shook their heads and Ron hesitated for a moment before sitting beside Evan. His gaze skittered across the scars on both of their cheeks before settling on the twisting fingers he kept in his lap. An uncomfortable silence descended on the compartment for several long minutes.

The door slid open again to reveal Ron's twin brothers. "Hey, Ron. Listen, we're going down to the middle of the train. Lee's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Right," mumbled Ron.

The red-headed twins turned their attention to Harry and Evan. "Hello! More twins?" They exchanged a gleeful look, "I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Fred Weasley!" The first twin bowed flamboyantly while the other said, "And I'm George Weasley! And you are?"

Blinking owlishly, Evan answered, "Harry and Evan Potter."

"Potter!?" all three Weasley's exclaimed.

"Er… yes?"

Ron stared openly at their scars, now. "So that's where You-Know-Who…?"

"Ronald!" the Weasley twins exclaimed, sounding remarkably like their mother.

"Sorry," he mumbled, blushing nearly the same color as his hair.

"We don't remember it, you know," Harry blurted.

"Just lots of green light," Evan added.

"Right then," Fred said.

"We're off," said George.

"Bye," mumbled Ron and the twins disappeared from the doorway, clicking it shut behind them.

Another lengthy silence ensued before Harry asked, curiously, "Are all your family wizards?"

Looking up, Ron seemed relieved that his earlier words had not ruined everything after all. "Yes, though I think mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant. We don't talk about him."

"So you must know loads of magic already!" Evan said, excited.

"Mostly just housework spells," Ron blushed, "Mum doesn't cast much else. And dad uses some complicated stuff when he's messing with Muggle things. I haven't been able to catch any of those."

"Muggle things?" Harry asked, confused.

"Yeah, he… er…" Ron couldn't figure out how to explain for a moment, "I don't know what any of it is, but he likes Muggle gadgets. Taking them apart, fixing them. Tinkering, really. Mum hates it. He works for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office in the Ministry. She's always afraid that something he messes with is going to get him in trouble."

"It must be nice having such a big family." Harry sighed.

"Five brothers and a sister," Ron said glumly, "Hand-me-down clothes, books, wands, pets. We have to share everything."

The compartment door slid open, revealing the pale and narrow face of Draco Malfoy. His face twisted into a sneer when he saw the Potters sitting with Ron, but before he could speak Evan snorted derisively and started berating the Weasley boy sitting beside him.

"Try wearing the worn-out whale-sized clothes of your cousin. Never having enough to eat. Sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs. Sharing a cot barely wider than you are with your brother and taking turns with punishments so that neither of you gets too worn out. You're lucky that your family loves you just as much as your brothers and sister. That's worth more than any object or possession you could ever hope to own."

Ron became paler and paler with every word, and even Draco standing in the doorway looked thoughtfully embarrassed. But Harry was incensed.

"Ev, that's not fair! Ron hasn't been in the situations we've been in. He has no reason to realize how lucky he is to have a family, brothers and a sister who love him and want to keep him, even when they might not be able to provide for him as well as they, and he, might like! I don't know what I would have done without you over the years, and I'm sure Ron would feel the same about his family if he thought about it."

Evan gave an ugly sneer. "I have no interest in making friends with someone who can't see and be thankful for the things he has." Turning, he made for the compartment door to leave, only to stop as he realized that Draco was still standing there, shuffling guiltily from foot to foot.

"I have to admit," the pale haired boy said after a few seconds, "that the conditions of your childhood surprise me. But I have always understood the value of parents who love and care for me." Ron snorted from within the room and Draco glared balefully in his direction. "And I came here with the intention of making friends. If you'll have me." He stuck out his hand and waited patiently for Evan to make a decision.

It only took a moment. The elder Potter twin shook hands with the Malfoy heir and smiled. "I would be glad to be your friend, Draco."

"Ev, you can't!" Harry protested.

"Why not?" Evan asked, puzzled.

"He's just like Dudley! Spoiled and self-centered and a bully. And Ron hasn't done anything wrong! How can you be friends with someone like him?"

"On the contrary, Harry. I don't see how you can be friends with him."

"So, what are we supposed to do? Try to all sit here and make friends and end up fighting with each other?"

"As I said before, I have no intentions of making friends with someone like Ronald." The Weasley boy flinched, turning an angry red color. "And since you can't seem to get past Draco's façade, I see only one solution."

"What?" Harry asked, an icy feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.

"We shall simply not be friends with each other's friends," Evan said softly. "Which means we won't be spending much time together at school, unless we're all in the same House, which I doubt."

"What!" Harry breathed. "But, Ev…"

"Goodbye, Harry," his brother answered.

He and Draco quickly left the compartment and Harry imagined them, sitting with those thick-set toughs and the blond girl sneering at him as he tried to get near his twin. "But we've never been apart," he mumbled to the empty air.

"Harry?" Turning, he saw Ron sitting there and looking ashamed. "Was all that my fault?"

Sitting with a thump back into his seat, Harry said, "No. I always knew Ev and I were different, but I didn't think we'd ever go separate ways. I never thought he would want to. We're twins."

Ron was silent for some time before he stood and came to sit beside his new friend (however badly made). "You know, if there's one thing I've learned with Fred and George as my brothers, it's that twins might look exactly the same, but they're both distinctly different people. I think… well, I think your brother might be a Slytherin once we finally get to being Sorted at Hogwarts."

"And what about me?" Harry whispered, never dreaming that Hogwarts, his salvation, might be the dividing force that he and Evan had been dreading all their lives.

"Can't say, really. There's four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. All my family have been Gryffindors, they're supposed to be brave. Hufflepuffs are loyal, Ravenclaws smart, and Slytherins cunning. But Slytherins have a bit of a bad reputation. Every dark wizard there's ever been was a Slytherin, the ones that went to Hogwarts, anyway."

"You don't think my brother will end up like that, do you?" Harry whispered.

"Nah! He was almost killed by You-Know-Who, same as you. Personally, I'm hoping he'll be a good influence on all the kids in that house who are the children of Death Eaters."

"What are Death Eaters?" Harry asked.

"Blimey! I forgot you were raised by Muggles, so you wouldn't know. Death Eaters are basically the members of You-Know-Who's army. Dark wizards and witches who do his bidding. They've done horrible things, when the Dark Lord was still around."

"They weren't captured?"

"A lot of them were, but some—like Malfoy's parents—claimed to be under the Imperius Curse. That's a spell that controls someone's mind and makes them do the will of the caster," he explained before Harry could ask.

"Sounds like whatever Dumbledore cast on my relatives," Harry muttered.

"No way!" Ron exclaimed. "First of all, you've met Dumbledore? But besides that, he would never cast Imperius on someone. It's some of the darkest magic there is! You can be sent to Azkaban—the wizard prison— just for casting it!"

"Well he did something." Harry sighed. "I don't know what to do about Ev. I can't… I won't let him push me away just because of our friends. Maybe I'll just give him some time to realize he misses me."

Ron gave him a doubtful look that Harry didn't notice. "All right, mate, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work."

They wiled away the rest of the trip wondering about the castle, and then playing with Chocolate Frog cards and other candies when the witch with the cart came by. Evan did much the same with his new friends, though he played other wizarding games that the others (who introduced themselves as Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson) had brought from home.

At last, just as it was getting dark outside of the train, Evan returned to the compartment and all three boys awkwardly put on their black robes as they prepared to depart. To Harry's relief, it seemed that his brother was going to stay with them instead of going back to find Draco and his other new friends.

They exited the train and followed the booming voice of Hagrid, whom they had met in Gringott's the month before, to a small fleet of boats on the edge of a smooth black lake. The three of them clambered into one, joined by the boy named Neville from the platform. As they glided across the surface of the water, Hagrid called out, "Y'll be getting yer first view of the castle in a minute!"

The boats smoothly propelled themselves around a bend in the shoreline and there before them was the most incredible sight. A huge castle rose up into the night sky, golden moonlight reflecting off of the hundreds of windows. The whole structure seemed as though it should teeter back and forth, it was so strangely built. Layer upon layer of floors rose up, only to be suddenly punctured by a tower or, quite near them, a round shape that looked almost exactly like a rook from a giant chess set.

Harry and Ron exchanged a bespelled glance and said in unison, "Wicked."

Before long, they found themselves ushered into the Great Hall by a very stern looking witch with horn-rimmed spectacles. Four long tables spread with golden cutlery were placed below a fifth table that was on a short dais at the front of the room, near the door where they entered. The ceiling was dark and star dusted, the moon a sickle of white barely peeking into the far corner of the room.

"When I call your names, you will sit on the stool and put on the hat to be sorted into your houses." The stern witch, who was introduced as Professor McGonagal, Head of Gryffindor House and Deputy Headmistress, pulled out a fat scroll and began to read.

Many girls and boys were called as Harry listened. The first that he recognized was the soft-faced boy named Neville from the platform who was clutching a large green toad with both hands, causing him to fumble as he put the hat on.

It took quite a long time for him to be sorted, but at last the hat called out, "Gryffindor!"

Next was Draco, Evan's new friend. Harry was not in the least surprised when the hat declared him a, "Slytherin," within moments of touching his head. He was very worried about them being separated, though.

Several more names were called, and then it was Harry's turn. Despite being the younger twin, his name came first alphabetically. He wished that could be changed, as he'd much rather try to convince the hat to let him stay with his brother, but there was nothing for it.

Loud gasps and whispers hailed him as he walked up to the hat. People began to crane their necks to see him and in turn his brother still standing in line. Thankfully, he soon took a seat on the stool and the hat was placed on his head, effectively blocking their peering eyes from his view.

"Well, what do we have here? A good mind, yes. A willingness to prove yourself, very loyal to your brother, aren't you? So where shall I put you?"

Harry listened with trepidation for the hat to make her verdict.

"You could be great in Slytherin, you know, but I don't think your temperament really suits that house. Better be Gryffindor!" The last word was shouted to the room at large and the second table from the left erupted into cheers, Ron's twin brothers bragging to everyone that "they got one of the Potters!"

But as Harry sat down beside a girl with very bushy brown hair among the other Gryffindor first years, he watched his brother worriedly. That sinking feeling was back in the pit of his stomach.

"Potter, Evan!" McGonagall called. Evan stepped forward, not a single movement betraying any nervousness he might be feeling. The hat settled over his eyes, and Harry imagined the conversation that might be occurring beneath that broad brim.

"Quite intelligent, you've always outshone poor Harry, haven't you? And such logic and cunning! Why, I couldn't think to place you anywhere but Slytherin!"

Harry's daydream came to a close with an abrupt crash as the hat at the front of the room echoed his own thought. Evan removed the hat, dashingly handing it back to McGonagall, and then made his way to the Slytherin table to sit beside Draco Malfoy without so much as glancing at his twin.

Harry's eyes followed him, willing his brother to look at him and show that he shared some of the disappointment and worry that he now felt. But Evan began to talk and laugh with his new friends. Even Ron's sorting into Gryffindor did little to cheer Harry up that night. He followed Percy Weasley, one of their prefects, up to the common room in a trudge, not even noticing the paintings or suits of armor that he passed. It didn't even matter that we would likely become horribly lost in the morning. He just wanted his brother back. And he wanted him back the way he was when they lived together at the Dursleys. A little slice of Vernon's bellow or Petunia's screech would have meant the world to him right then.

Late that night, safely ensconced behind the curtains of his bed, Harry cried himself to sleep.

And down in the depths of the dungeon, Evan wondered if his little brother was all right. But then he remembered the freckle-faced menace known as Ronald Weasley, and he was sure that Harry had forgotten all about him. Evan fell asleep still nursing the anger he felt at losing his brother to the foolish Gryffindors in the tower upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how was it? 
> 
> Don’t worry, Harry and Evan will get back together! :)


End file.
